Google rolls out 'social search'

Google is rolling out a 'social search' initiative that will allow users to see photos and information from their friends related to their search.

The search giant hopes to make search more personal by displaying relevant web-content from friends and online contacts.

Until now the initiative has been only been available through the company's Labs site, but Google announced that it would now be available via Google.com and was being rolled out to English users in beta.

If one of my friends has written a blog where he talks about a great baby shop he found..., this might appear in my social results, read Google's announcement. I could probably find other reviews, but my friend's blog is more relevant because I know and trust the author.

Google has also built social search into its image search.

When searching for a celebrity, for example, the new opt-in feature will also bring up photos of real friends with the same name.

We think there's tremendous potential for social information to improve search, and we're just beginning to scratch the surface, Google said.

Google recommends that people create a Google profile which they can then populate with social network details, photo sharing accounts and personal blog addresses.

The new search results will work for users who are logged into their Google account.